by Natalie Delia

Created on: March 21, 2009

When I was 15, we debated the then-fashionable controversy regarding "female circumcision" in my high school global studies class. We counted off ("one-two-one-two") to be assigned to the pro or con side of the issue. The cons had an easy job, they just had to argue that people from other cultures should not be able to lop part of their daughters' genitals off with legal impunity, or at least not here in the US. Those of us on the pro side had it a bit more difficult: we needed to somehow convince the judge (our teacher, this was a pretty informal debate) that people should be allowed to have unnecessary surgeries performed on female children because, well, they felt like it. Basically, we had to argue that torture, child abuse, sexism and permanent disfigurement were all okay and should be legal, as long as the people committing the acts committed them in the name of religious and cultural customs.

Shockingly, we won the debate. Perhaps less shockingly, we constructed an argument that was, unbeknownst to us, almost identical to the arguments currently being used to justify the routine circumcision of male newborns in the United States.

1) Circumcision is desirable for hygienic and "general health" reasons

Women whose outer labia have been removed suffer from fewer bacterial and yeast infections, find their genitals (once they have healed, of course) to be easier to clean and less likely to retain unattractive odors.

Like their female counterparts, men who have been circumcised suffer from fewer urinary tract infections and their genitals are easier to clean and less likely to retain unattractive odors.

Incidentally, in cultures where circumcision is acceptable, circumcised genitals are often deemed "cleaner" and more appealing by the sex that remains uncircumcised.

2) Children's genitals should match those of their "same sex" parent and as everyone else's in the "locker room"

Women in many Muslim countries have been circumcised for centuries to no ill effect. Mothers voluntarily choose this for their daughters, having been circumcised themselves. Even if some people have misgivings about the real reasoning behind the medical procedure, there is no reason to turn their children into political statements who will not fit in and become pariahs when it is time for them to marry.

Men in the United State have been routinely circumcised since the First World War. Men choose this for their sons, and most father are themselves circumcised. Even if you are not sure why it is

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